Former No.1 Ana Ivanovic hadn’t made it past the quarterfinals of a major tournament since her maiden Grand Slam victory at the 2008 French Open, but her chances for ending that drought looked better than ever as she began the year at her highest ranking in six years.

The Serb played up to her No.5 ranking from the first week of the year, reaching the finals of the Brisbane International and pushing top seed Maria Sharapova to three grueling sets in the championship match.

A broken toe interrupted her Australian summer hardcourt swing, however, and it wasn’t until the clay court season that she began playing some of her best tennis again.

At the site of her sole Grand Slam success, Ivanovic fought through a draw of dangerous floaters, including two-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist Yaroslava Shvedova, Misaki Doi, and WTA Rising Star Donna Vekic, before taking out Ekaterina Makarova, 7-5, 3-6, 6-1, in their first match since the 2011 Australian Open, which the former No.1 lost in a heartbreaking 10-8 final set.

“In the third I knew I had to step up my level, because she’s a very dangerous opponent. She gets a lot of balls, and she was very aggressive on her down-the-line shots. I tried to take that away from her.”

That confidence-building win helped her cruise past another WTA Rising Star in Elina Svitolina, dropping just five games to the Ukrainian youngster playing in her first major quarterfinal.

“It’s been a long road and hard work. And you can’t take any victory for granted, let alone a quarterfinal. It’s not every day that you reach that – it’s been a long time. So I am really pleased.”

A solid summer swing featured some difficult draws, none tougher than 2014 Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova in the first round of the US Open. But the Serb rebounded well in Asia, reaching the quarterfinals of the Toray Pan Pacific Open and the semifinals of the China Open – finding herself very close to a second straight appearance at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

Ending the season with some niggling back issues, Ivanovic resolved to spend the off-season with former coach Nigel Sears – with whom she reunited earlier this year – getting stronger and more ready for an all-out assault on 2016.

“I just felt that I’ve been playing better than my results have been showing. That’s been a little bit frustrating. But I did have tough opponents.

“I played some good tennis [in Paris] and obviously was very happy to be in the first Grand Slam semifinal since 2008. It’s just in between there have been so many changes. It’s been a little bit tough, especially first part of the year. After the French I sort of felt Wimbledon was a little bit disappointing, but I felt like I got a good structure and good team after that.”